Emilia's Journal

Dear Emilia,

We are going to open a frequent flyer membership for you soon, since you have now taken four plane rides in your first seven months of life!

We hadn’t been to Chicago to visit your Uncle Kris and Aunt Andrea for a while, and it happened that the Minnesota Twins were in town to play the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Would this be your first Twins game, and first Cubs game, rolled in to one? Your mom and I tried to go to Wrigley Field once before, but the game was rained out!

After a completely uneventful trip down to Chicago in which you mostly smiled at everyone sitting around us, Aunt Andrea and Uncle Kris picked us up at the airport, and we headed straight to Portillos. You are much too young for sandwiches, let alone portillos, but you were happy to sleep in the back of the car while we got our food.

The next morning, it looked like rain, and instead of dragging you to the field and risk getting rained on, we decided instead to go to the Art Institute of Chicago to see the new modern wing.

So, we hopped on the L on the brown line for your first train ride. You had a great time looking out the windows.

We went straight to the museum, and checked out the new area. You loved looking at all of the paintings with the crazy shapes and colors (we were in the Modern Wing, after all…)

We couldn’t help but notice a beautiful blue sky, (in contrast to the rain when we left in the morning) and the park was calling. We looked at all of the big buildings…

And all of the small flowers…

Inexplicably, a horde of zombies showed up and you weren’t amused…

We hopped back on the train and went home. You were very impressed with all of the sites and sounds of the big city!

The next day we had a great breakfast at the Southport Grocery. (As you will learn when you are older, the main focus of trips to chicago is food.)

When I think of you on this trip, I will remember how you were so observant! You love to examine things. We’re having so much fun offering you new things to look at and play with.

We can’t wait to take you on trips to show you more of the world!

Love, Dad

Dear Emilia,

Quick on the heels of your first plane trip, we packed up again for a trip to Mexico for spring break! We met your friend Maddy and her dad Matt for a week. It was Maddy’s first birthday, but unfortunately, you’re too young to enjoy some birthday cake…

We stayed in a beautiful location right on the beach. I took this picture from the balcony one morning when you woke up early.

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